Tag: mediumtheory

L.A’s 6th Street Bridge as urban communication convergence zone

Last month the city of Los Angeles celebrated the opening of the new 6th Street Viaduct bridge. The new structure replaces the original 6th Street bridge, an iconic landmark that spanned the L.A. river, connected downtown to Boyle Heights, and appeared in numerous films and other media. The original bridge was constructed in 1932 and … Continue reading L.A’s 6th Street Bridge as urban communication convergence zone

The Medium play at Pittsburgh’s City Theater

This past weekend City Theatre in Pittsburgh’s South Side began staging The Medium, a performance inspired by the work of Marshall McLuhan. The production was developed by New York-based SITI Company beginning in 1993 and was first presented at City Theatre in 1996. This means that The Medium was created during a unique moment in … Continue reading The Medium play at Pittsburgh’s City Theater

Defining Media Ecology

This essay was originally written as part of my PhD comprehensive exams. It was written in response to the prompt: "Define Media Ecology." Introduction             The meaning of the phrase “media ecology” will likely depend on the context in which it is used. When the phrase appears in popular discourse, it is often used in a … Continue reading Defining Media Ecology

McLuhan Monday: Print and Islam, mobile gaming medium theory, McLuhan’s relevance, and more

In an article for Haaretz reflecting on last week's terror attacks in Paris, Michael Handelzalts invokes McLuhan's infamous aphorism in relation to the emergence of print culture in the Islamic world: So, in the Muslim world, books and literacy became generally accessible (instead of being accessible only to the educated male and the wealthy) about a … Continue reading McLuhan Monday: Print and Islam, mobile gaming medium theory, McLuhan’s relevance, and more

End of 2012 mega blow-out post

"General Semantics and media theory": video of a 20-minute presentation by Thom Gencarelli from this year's IGS symposium. "Game or be gamed: Douglas Rushkoff on prototyping democracy through play" "Those levels of interactivity, for me, recapitulated the levels of participation that we as a society have had since the invention of media," Rushkoff said, referring … Continue reading End of 2012 mega blow-out post

Media matters: Alone Together @ TED, fear in the attention economy, Chomsky tweets and more

Sherry Turkle expounds on her Alone Together thesis in a recently released TED talk video: Danah Boyd considers the culture of fear and the attention economy (click here for Vimeo link). I recently came across this Salon article by UMD doctoral student Nathan Jurgenson from last year where he argues that Noam Chomsky is wrong … Continue reading Media matters: Alone Together @ TED, fear in the attention economy, Chomsky tweets and more